Shock and anger in Baghdad after Sunday's deadly attack
CBC Radio | Posted: July 4, 2016 9:23 PM | Last Updated: July 7, 2016
Updated July 7, 2016
Early Sunday morning, a suicide car-bomb ripped through a shopping centre in Baghdad's Karrada district. At the time, the area was full of people who were shopping and watching soccer, ahead of this week's holiday marking the end of the month of Ramadan.
ISIS has taken responsibility for the attack. The death toll has now reached 281 people, a government official said Thursday. Hundreds more are injured.
On Monday, Furat al Jamil — an Iraqi filmmaker — visited the scene of the attack. She spoke with As it Happens guest host Susan Bonner about what she saw.
"There were a lot of people in the street," she says. "Some people were demonstrating. Others were crying. Others were sifting through the rubble looking for loved ones."
Some survivors told al Jamil about how they were able to escape one of the burning buildings. One shopkeeper told her how he, along with a group of men, escaped by kicking a hole in the wall. Others were able to get to the roof.
"They jumped from the roof, which is rather high from a three storey building," she says. "They broke their legs."
The attack comes a week after Iraqi officials recaptured the city of Fallujah from ISIS. Al Jamil thinks that ISIS is sending a message to the Iraqi government that it can still hit "in the heart of Baghdad."
In speaking with those at the scene of the attack, al Jamil says many people are angry with the government.
"They blame them for the lack of security and intelligence that is provided about these attacks. This is the second time that this area was hit … and all of them are saying that nothing is done to secure their lives — that their lives are taken lightly."
For more on this story, take a listen to our full interview with Furat al Jamil.